The Unexpected Situation.

By Nandhita Pradeep

It was a hot and humid night. I just came home after a conference meeting. I was just too tired to attend a get-together party which was planned by my friends because my old friend Ramesh will be landing back in India from Germany after two and a half years and that too it was his birthday tomorrow. I don’t even know Ramesh’s address because I lost his contact. I didn’t bother to get his address, but my friends asked me to come to his house for the get-together to surprise him. My neighborhood is new to me. I moved to this house about two months ago.

I ate my dinner and went to bed. I read a book till I fell asleep. I slowly drifted to dreamland with the storybook kept in my chest. Around two in the morning, I heard some noises from my neighbor’s house. I wondered what was happening as it was unusual to hear such a noise at midnight. I slept, thinking that it was a hallucination. After a few minutes, I heard a scream. I jolted up from my bed, unlocked my house door, and ran to my neighbor’s house with a golf club in my hands. I knocked on the door lifting the stick to beat the person because I thought it was a serial killer who had been killing people recently. He has been roaming in our town for the past few days.

The door burst open by Ramesh. What is he doing here? He was smiling but froze on his spot, seeing me with a blank face, holding a golf club aiming at him. My friends peeked their heads behind the door, surprised at me being there at an unusual time and situation because I said I was tired after work. I smiled sheepishly and made up a sudden excuse for me to be here. I said I was here to surprise him. He invited me inside to celebrate his birthday. After completing it, I bid goodbye, came to my room, and slept while embarrassed.

By Nandhita Pradeep